A Guide To Grey’s Anatomy’s Most Epic Romances–and Their Often Tragic Endings

Welcome to Shondaland: Where the romances always burn white-hot and usually end in tragedy.

Over the last 15 seasons, Grey’s Anatomy has delivered more than its fair share of epic romances involving the rotating roster of unbelievably attractive doctors and, at times, their equally impressive patients. It is a glossy nighttime soap, after all. That’s what they do.

And no one does it better than Grey’s.

From Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) life-altering—for us, as much as her—romance with Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) to Izzie’s (Katherine Heigl) ill-fated love affair with Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and all that have followed, Shonda Rhimes and her team have never failed in their quest to make us swoon week after week, usually as we’re full-on sobbing.

And with one of the seemingly most stable love stories—the untouchable marriage between Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Ben Warren (Jason George)—veering into dangerous territory across this week’s episodes of both Grey’s and spinoff Station 19, thanks to the stressful side effects of his new, high-risk career as a firefighter, we thought it was as good a time as any to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about all the epic-ness the show has delivered up to now. You know, in case anything goes horribly wrong tonight. It’s good to remember the good times.

Now, you’ll notice that not every couple ever is in here. That’s because not all of them really rank as “epic” in our eyes—or because some, like the nascent relationship between Jackson (Jesse Williams) and Maggie (Kelly McCreary), are only just getting started. So, spare us your angry tweets. Please.